On con­sec­u­tive days, Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri and Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee grant­ed clemen­cies to death row inmates fac­ing immi­nent exe­cu­tion in their respec­tive states. In Missouri, Gov. Nixon com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Richard Clay, who was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on January 12. In Tennessee, Gov. Bredesen grant­ed clemen­cy to Edward Jerome Harbison, thus avert­ing his exe­cu­tion on February 15. Both inmates now face life in prison with­out parole. Clay and his sup­port­ers main­tained that he was inno­cent of a 1994 mur­der-for-hire mur­der. In a state­ment released by the gov­er­nor’s office, Nixon said that Clay’s ​“involve­ment in this crime is clear,” but chose to exer­cise his exec­u­tive author­i­ty after ​“hav­ing looked at this mat­ter in its entire­ty and after sig­nif­i­cant thought and coun­sel.” In Tennessee, Harbison was charged with a mur­der that occurred in 1983. He ini­tial­ly con­fessed to the crime but lat­er claimed he was coerced after author­i­ties threat­ened to arrest his girl­friend and put her chil­dren into fos­ter care. Of the com­mu­ta­tion, Gov. Bredesen said, ​“It’s obvi­ous­ly a heinous crime, but when I com­pare it to oth­ers I don’t think it rose to the lev­el of a death penal­ty crime.” Gov. Nixon was elect­ed in 2008, hav­ing served as Attorney General while Clay was being pros­e­cut­ed. Gov. Bredesen is leaving office.

(J. Salter, ​“Mo. gov. spares man whose exe­cu­tion was immi­nent,” Washington Post, January 10, 2011); R. Berg, ​“Gov. Nixon com­mutes sen­tence of death row inmate,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 10, 2011; B. Hass, ​“Bredesen com­mutes Edward Harbison’s death sen­tence, par­dons 22 oth­ers,” The Tennessean, January 11, 2011). 

See Clemency and Life Without Parole. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed the exe­cu­tion of Cleve Foster in Texas just moments before he was to be exe­cut­ed on January 11.

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